Title: Don’t Look!

Location & Date: Trout Lake, Yellowstone National Park | July, 2011

Camera Set-Up: Nikon D300 80-200 at 200mm

Shutter Speed: 1/400

Aperture: 6.3

ISO: 800

Note:

We’ve had the good fortune of spending considerable time with the otters of Trout Lake over the last four summers. But this is the shot that started it all. Having visited Yellowstone for countless years, it wasn’t until Jill and I explored the park in the summer of 2011 that we realized I had been missing out on watching Yellowstone’s most endearing animal: the river otter. After striking out on our first visit to Trout Lake, a fellow hiker encouraged us to give it another shot. Thank heavens we did. I fell in love with otters on this first encounter and have taken tens of thousands of photographs of this particular family in the years since. But this image will always have a special place in my heart.